Kid Friendly Wineries in Sonoma

Kid friendly wineries in Sonoma – do they even exist? Let’s find out!

Sonoma is a paradise for wine lovers, it has close to 400 wineries. Out of the two neighbors, Sonoma and Napa, I personally prefer Sonoma because it is less crowded and more laid back – perfect for a family visit. That’s why I would say there are more kid friendly wineries in Sonoma than in Napa, which I find a bit pretentious.

Before you embark on your Sonoma kid friendly wineries trip and if you are relatively new to wine tasting I suggest reading my general post on basics of wine tasting – it will provide you tools you need to learn about wine and enjoy your visit to Sonoma County so much more.

In addition to that, I recommend buying this guidebook: Citizen’s Guide to California Wine Country: Napa and Sonoma (Wineopolis). It will give you extensive information about the two wine making regions (you kill two birds with one stone) and you can pick and choose other wineries to add to your itinerary. This was the first book I bought when I moved to San Francisco Bay Area and it turned out to be one the most useful travel guides in my library.

In this post I will talk about six of our most favorite kid friendly wineries in Sonoma, tried and approved.

# 1 Kid Friendly Winery in Sonoma – KORBEL

Korbel is my top kid friendly winery in Sonoma for many reasons:

1. Generally, you do not have to schedule a visit in advance and can just show-up any time during their normal business hours (please, note that during COVID-19 pandemic things have changed and lots of wineries require reservations – please, confirm their policies with each winery you plan to visit during this time);
2. You can do 2 tours at Korbel: the garden tour (from mid-April to mid-October) and the winery tour (any season). Both tours are FREE of charge. The garden is obviously a fun place for kids but the winery tour was great too because it is not too long (50 minutes) and it has a frequent “change of scenery” – walking , talking, video watching, demonstrations, tasting. You will see many families with kids on both tours and even my then 4 year old enjoyed it;
3. There is a nice gourmet cafe on site with a lot of good healthy food options;
4. The winery is located in a beautiful Russian River valley away from all the hustle and bustle.

#2 Kid Friendly Winery in Sonoma – KENDALL-JACKSON

Kendall-Jackson winery is located 10-15 minutes drive from Korbel so it makes sense to visit both wineries together. It is a great kid friendly winery in Sonoma county. There are several outstanding things that I like about this winery:

1. A demonstration vineyard (in front of the winery building to the left) where you can see various varieties of grapes. They don’t harvest them for wines, they are there specifically for education purposes. The best time to see them is in the fall when the grapes are ripe.
2. A huge fruits and vegetables garden at the back of the winery where you can find anything from walnuts to herbs to berries. And a big bonus is waiting for your kids at the far end of the garden – a chicken coop with very friendly birds . While my husband and I were tasting the wine our kids were out back exploring the garden and playing with chickens and we could hardly drag them back to the car when it was time to leave.
3. You have to pay for tasting here but you can get a 2-for-1 coupon on their website (which is a little hard to find so since I have done the leg work already I am posting it here 😉 ):

#3 Kid Friendly Winery in Sonoma – BENZIGER FAMILY WINERY

Benziger Family Winery is not your typical mainstream winery, I never knew about its existence before I read Wineopolis guide that I have recommended above. But I am glad I found it. If you have any doubts about wineries being a suitable place for kids this place will prove you wrong. Here is why I think Benziger is an excellent family friendly winery in Sonoma:

1.It has a playground on site – enough said;

2. You do have to book their tour in advance and it is not free ($30 for adults and $10 for kids) but it is one of the best in the area. They take you around on a small tram (and what kid does not like a good old tram ride behind a tractor?) You will see the vineyard and the farm, the winery and the caves. The guide (at least the one we had) was very entertaining, we were not bored a single minute and he was often addressing the kids who were present on the tour when asking questions about agriculture. The tour ends with an excellent wine tasting.

This combination of facilities and a great tour guarantied Benziger a place on my list of kid friendly wineries in Sonoma.

#4 Kid Friendly Winery in Sonoma – SONOMA PORTWORKS

Do you like desert wines? If so Sonoma Portworks is a must stop for you. There are very few wineries around here which make after dinner wines like port or sherry and it turns out Sonoma Porworks is one of the best (and I have a solid baseline to compare it to – I did authentic Port tastings in Portugal 😉 )

Why I love this place:

1. It has an unpretentious, cozy tasting room close to downtown Petaluma;
2. The hosts are very friendly and the tasting is FREE;
3. They have a table set up for kids where they can make puzzles while adults are enjoying a glass of excellent port.

Even if port wine has never been on your radar, why not try something new? You have nothing to lose except that you might get addicted to this “liquid dessert”. It is definitely one of the best kid friendly wineries in Sonoma county.

If you spend just 1 day in Sonoma, I strongly suggest not to add any more stops to it. You won’t have enough time to enjoy every stop and each of these places deserve your fullest attention.

If you have more than 1 day I suggest yet another family friendly winery in Sonoma – Ford Coppola. It is located further away from the ones I mentioned above but it is definitely worth a drive.

#5 Kid Friendly Winery in Sonoma – FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA

Francis Ford Coppola winery is located in Geyserville, California. It is an outdoor recreation center with a pool and bocce ball courts, a Hollywood movies museum and a wine tasting room all in one. It is such a fun and unique winery that I have dedicated the whole blog post to it on its own – check it out: Unique Wineries in Sonoma.

#6 Kid Friendly Winery in Sonoma – BUENA VISTA

Buena Vista winery is also a bit of an outlier which is located away from Russian River area in the town of Sonoma. But you can easily pair a visit to Buena Vista with Benziger and Sonoma Portworks.

What I like about this winery is a kid friendly tour where you can learn about history of winemaking and an old castle-like building with a museum feel (it actually does have a wine tools museum on site!). In some ways it reminds me of Frances Ford Coppola winery.

I also love that there is a hedge maze outside on the property where kids can run and play while you enjoy your wine tasting.

This is one one of the prettiest wineries on this list of family friendly wineries in Sonoma with lots of cool photo opportunities.

Kid Friendly Wineries in Sonoma – CONCLUSION

This selection of kid friendly wineries in Sonoma  is based only on my personal past experiences. I have not visited all wineries in Sonoma yet so I might have missed other family friendly places. I will be adding more information once such places have been discovered in our future travels.

The ideal Sonoma family friendly wineries itinerary that will save you a lot of time driving is:

Day 1: Korbel, Kendall-Jackson, Frances Ford Coppola

Day 2: Benziger, Buena Vista, Sonoma Portworks

For a helpful wine tasting card to take with you for tasting (wineries don’t usually provide any), please, visit my SHOP page. I have designed this handy card so that it is easy to use for both experienced wine lovers and beginners alike. You will receive a PDF file via an e-mail which you may re-use as many times as you like.

You may also be interested in the following California regional itineraries that cover other great California kid friendly wineries:

Napa Valley 1 Day Family Friendly Itinerary

Carmel Valley Family Friendly Wineries

Santa Cruz Mountains Family Friendly Wineries

Kid Friendly Wineries in Paso Robles

CHEERS!

If you found this list of kid friendly wineries in Sonoma county useful, please do me a little favor and share this trip with others, for there’s a good chance that it will help them with their travel plans. 🙂 If you have your own family friendly winery in Sonoma that is on this list, please, let me know in the comments below – we would love to check it out!